Tattoo, A Love Story is an independent romantic comedy about an upper middle class school teacher who is engaged to a doctor, but develops a crush on the burly tattooed biker that one of her kids brings to Show-and-Tell one day.
While it is technically well crafted, it’s a little to 'precious' for it's own good; not to mention dated, given that just about everyone has a tattoo nowadays.
With a title like that, you'd expect some edginess - especially in an indie film - but everything about this film is as tightly controlled as the type A personality of the lead character - from all-too-perfect lighting to it’s locked down tripod shots. In fact, the only bit that isn't overly prettified is the When Harry Met Sally/Jerry Maguire technique of punctuating the story with first person interviews where people talk about their tattoos.
The end result is something like a sitcom version of good-girl-meets-bad-boy, rather than the real thing, making it feel like the least independent-independent film we’ve seen in awhile.
Lollilove, on the other hand is a bit edgier. You know this from the get-go because it’s a Troma release. But it’s not your typical Troma film – no hacked off limbs, gross-out humor and the like here. Instead we get a mockumentary about an upper middle class couple (not unlike the one in Tattoo, A Love Story in many respects), who decide to form a charity – Lollilove – which seeks to solve the homeless problem one lollipop at a time.
The deadpan black humor of the piece is excellent, and the performances of the leads is outstanding - particularly Jenna Fisher who also directed this film before going on to stardom in another mockumentary - the U.S. version of 'The Office' TV series.
There’s also a lot of great bit players including Lloyd Kauffman (of course), and Judy Greer.
You can see Lollilove for free here: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi977967385/
No comments:
Post a Comment